The term ‘fuel poverty’ obscures landlords’ responsibilities to ensure that their properties are energy efficient and blames tenants for their inability to keep their homes at a safe temperature, argues David Ormandy, suggesting we use the term ‘energy injustice’ instead.
Fuel poverty is ‘the inability to afford adequate warmth at home. It arises when low income is combined with high heating costs. It is not the same as poverty itself. Some poor families who have cheap and efficient heating systems are not in fuel poverty. On the other hand, many families who have incomes above normal definitions of poverty cannot afford adequate warmth.’
1P Lewis, Ending Fuel Poverty, National Right to Fuel Campaign, May 1982, quoted in Jonathan Bradshaw and Toby Harris (eds), Energy and Social Policy, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.This article questions why tenants (particularly those on low incomes) are blamed for fuel (or energy) poverty and left exposed to suffer the consequences. It looks into the interpretation of the term ‘fuel poverty’, and argues that, by definition, the dwelling is the problem. Whereas it is logical to put responsibility on the landlord, it is the tenant, being in the weakest position, who is made the scapegoat. Finally, ‘energy injustice’ is proposed as a better term as it includes the wider causes and recognises the widespread ‘blame the weakest’ attitude.
What is fuel poverty?
In the UK, fuel/energy poverty is generally taken to mean the financial inability of a household to access energy essential for everyday domestic life – ie, energy for heating, lighting, hot water, food storage and cooking, and the use of household appliances.
However, the UK doesn’t have a single ‘official’ definition of what constitutes fuel poverty. England uses the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) definition –
both where the property has an energy efficiency rating of D or lower
2Energy efficiency rating is calculated using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and given in bands, with A being the most energy efficient and G being the worst – see Standard Assessment Procedure, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), 22 January 2013; last updated 20 December 2022. and where the amount the household spends on heating leaves it with a residual income below the official poverty line.
3Sustainable warmth: protecting vulnerable households in England, CP 391, BEIS, February 2021, page 10. The definitions used in Scotland and Wales are similar – where the fuel costs for heating to maintain an acceptable standard of living are more than 10 per cent of a household’s adjusted net income.
4Respectively Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019 s3 and Fuel poverty modelled estimates for Wales (headline results): as at October 2021, Welsh government, 13 April 2022.What these definitions don’t make clear is that fuel poverty is a symptom; they shift the focus away from the causes. The causes include an energy-inefficient dwelling (mentioned in the English definition), the cost of energy, as well as available household finance. Unfortunately, the inclusion of the word ‘poverty’ makes it too easy to focus on the finances of the household (ie, is the household poor?) rather than on the state of the dwelling and the compounding impact of the price of fuel.
What is a dwelling?
A US definition from 1986 stated that every ‘dwelling shall have
heating equipment and appurtenance that are properly installed, in safe and good working condition, are capable of safely and adequately heating all habitable rooms, bathrooms, and water closet compartments therein to the temperatures specified’.
5APHA–CDC recommended minimum housing standards, American Public Health Association and Centers for Disease Control, 1986, para 7.01, page 31, emphasis added. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined healthy housing as ‘the physical structure of the dwelling, and the extent to which it enables physical health, including by … providing
shelter from the elements and from excess moisture, and by
facilitating comfortable temperatures … protection from pollutants … mould and pests’.
6WHO housing and health guidelines, WHO, 2018, para 1.1.1, page 2, emphasis added.These quotations recognise that occupiers need both protection from the elements and provision for heating. It is the structure, the fabric, of a dwelling that protects against the elements, including rain, wind, snow and, to some extent, the outdoor temperature. They also recognise the need for effective means of providing a safe indoor environment and temperature. Recognising this combination, the official UK energy efficiency rating system ‘is based on the characteristics of the building itself (the fabric) and its services (such as heating, ventilation and lighting)’.
7A guide to energy performance certificates for the construction, sale and let of non-dwellings, Department for Communities and Local Government, December 2017, page 10. A dwelling with a poorly insulated structure and/or with an inadequate or inappropriate heating system (ie, a dwelling with an energy efficiency rating of D or below) will waste heat, increasing the energy costs to the household (and adding to the dwelling’s carbon footprint).
Temperatures to be achieved indoors
The UK definitions of fuel poverty give minimum temperatures to be achieved within a dwelling, the aim being to avoid unsafe (health-threatening) temperatures, ie, temperatures based on health-related research. The following table sets out the recommended indoor temperatures to be met (particularly when the outdoor temperature is -1
oC or below).
8Based on Hayley Janssen et al, Cold homes and their association with health and well-being: a systematic literature review, Public Health Wales NHS Trust, 2022, table 1, page 7.
Source and year | Recommended temperatures | Target population |
UK Health Security Agency, 2021 9The Cold Weather Plan for England: protecting health and reducing harm from cold weather, UK Health Security Agency, 2021. | A minimum of 18oC at all times | All |
| 23oC in living room and 20oC elsewhere for 16 out of 24 hours | Those over 60 years and those infirm |
21oC in the living room and 18oC elsewhere for 9 out of 24 hours (or 16 out of 24 hours over weekends) – being two hours in the morning and seven in the evening | Other households |
| 23oC in living room and 18oC elsewhere for 16 out of 24 hours | Households with older or disabled members |
21oC in the living room and 18oC elsewhere for 9 out of 24 hours (or 16 out of 24 hours over weekends) | Other households |
These temperatures can be traced back to those given by the WHO in 1987 – a minimum of 18
oC and an upper limit of 24
oC generally, and the minimum adjusted to 20
oC for those who are vulnerable.
12Health impact of low indoor temperatures: report on a WHO meeting: Copenhagen, 11–14 November 1985, WHO Regional Office for Europe, 1987. A more recent, 2018, WHO report confirms the same 18
oC minimum, and states a higher minimum may be necessary for vulnerable groups.
13WHO housing and health guidelines, pages 32–41.Health threats from unsafe temperatures
All age groups are susceptible to negative health outcomes from exposure to excess low indoor temperatures. At greater risk are children, the elderly and those with cardiorespiratory disease or other chronic conditions. For children there is an increased risk of respiratory conditions and the exacerbation of asthma, and for adolescents and adults there is also an increased risk of mental ill health (including stress and social isolation).
14Cold homes and their association with health and well-being: a systematic literature review, pages 11 and 13.For the elderly, there is the additional risk of premature mortality. Each year, there is a higher number of deaths during winter months compared with other months, ie, excess winter deaths.
15Excess winter mortality in England and Wales: 2020 to 2021 (provisional) and 2019 to 2020 (final), Office for National Statistics, 26 November 2021. The extent to which housing conditions directly contribute to these figures is not clear, but the indication is that those exposed to low indoor temperatures in their dwellings are at significantly greater risk of the range of negative health outcomes and of death.
According to the Building Research Establishment (BRE), in 2018 the estimated cost to the NHS of dealing with cold-related illnesses attributable to exposure to low indoor temperatures in English dwellings was £857m a year.
16Helen Garrett et al, The cost of poor housing in England: 2021 briefing paper, BRE, November 2021, page 6. Add to this the additional costs to current and future households, local and national economies caused by days off school (affecting educational achievement) and days off work. (Note: As well as the direct relationship between exposure to low temperatures and health, poorly heated dwellings are prone to problems of condensation and mould, an additional threat to health
17See March 2023 Legal Action 7. and with additional costs to society.)
Who is blamed and who is to blame?
Tenants are blamed – blamed for not being able to afford the heating (energy) costs necessary to achieve the safe temperatures; and it is tenants who are left to cope when energy costs rise (for whatever reason) and who are left exposed to the threats to health. But, arguably, the responsibility rests with the landlord.
Where a dwelling is energy inefficient, such as having an energy efficiency rating of D or below, because it lacks either an efficient heating system
18‘Efficient’ is defined in the online Chambers 21st Century Dictionary as ‘producing satisfactory results with an economy of effort and a minimum of waste’. or adequate thermal insulation, that dwelling fails to meet its objective of providing accommodation suitable for human habitation.
19See definition of ‘dwelling’ at Housing Health and Safety Rating System: operating guidance, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, February 2006, para 2.04, page 10.Since 1 April 2020, landlords have been required to obtain an energy performance certificate (EPC) and are prohibited from letting a dwelling with an EPC rating of F or G (the two lowest energy efficiency ratings).
20Domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency standard – landlord guidance, BEIS, 1 October 2017; last updated 4 May 2020. To be able to legally offer a dwelling for rent, the landlord must ensure the dwelling has an EPC rating of E or above, if necessary by carrying out improvements. (Note: A rating of E is still well below the lowest rating considered as energy efficient by the LILEE definition of fuel poverty – see above.) This obligation to carry out energy efficiency improvements if the dwelling EPC is of a rating below E makes it clear that it is the owner/landlord who is responsible for a dwelling’s energy efficiency.
The landlord’s repairing obligations
21Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 s11 and Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 s92. are limited to just that – to repair, to restore something. This phrasing excludes putting right something that was wrong in the first place and so excludes improving energy efficiency.
In England, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 states that a dwelling must be ‘fit’ throughout a letting. Fitness, under this Act (and the equivalent Welsh legislation
22The Renting Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) (Wales) Regulations 2022 SI No 6 (W 4) and Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 s91.), is determined by reference to the 29 potential housing hazards given in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which include the hazard of excess cold, ie, exposure to low indoor temperatures. The HHSRS guidance on excess cold states that the energy efficiency of a dwelling depends on four inter-related factors: the thermal insulation of the structure; the type of fuel; the size and design of the means of heating; and the means for ventilation.
23Housing Health and Safety Rating System: operating guidance, para 2.16, page 61. (It also notes that excess ventilation, from draughts or openings that are too large, wastes heat and reduces air temperatures.) Unfortunately, it is not clear if the HHSRS guidance should be followed in determining ‘fitness’ for habitation.
Separately, where a dwelling is found to exhibit the HHSRS hazard of excess cold, the local authority must consider if action is necessary under Housing Act 2004 Part 1 to require the owner/landlord to deal effectively with the hazard by improving energy efficiency. There is a duty on local authorities to review housing conditions in their district and take any necessary action (s3), and the ‘proper officer’ of a local authority must respond to an official complaint made under s4(3).
It is arguable that an energy-inefficient dwelling, being a threat to health, is a statutory nuisance for the purposes of Environmental Protection Act 1990 s79(1)(a). Under Part III of that Act, local authorities are under a duty to take action to deal with such premises, and s82 enables a ‘person aggrieved’ to take action in a magistrates’ court.
Why energy injustice?
Branding a household as being in fuel poverty, and defining it in terms of the household finances, implies that it is that lack of sufficient money that is the cause, when it is really the energy efficiency of the dwelling plus the price of energy. But the tenant is blamed and the landlord excused – after all, it’s not the landlord’s fault energy prices have risen! It isn’t the tenant’s fault either, but the balance is heavily weighted in the landlord’s favour. If a landlord in England is forced to upgrade the energy efficiency with little security of tenure, and no rent control, it is possible/probable that the tenancy will not be renewed and/or the rent demanded will rise.
It is usually those in debt on their energy bills who are made to accept prepayment meters. Already struggling with their finances, they are then charged at a higher price per energy unit than those able to pay by direct debit. Prepayment meters also obscure those struggling and who self-disconnect – missing cooked meals, being exposed to low indoor temperatures, doing without personal and clothes washing, turning off the fridge, or foregoing other necessities requiring energy. But at least the energy supplier has been paid, and the debt won’t increase. Even if the original debt is because the dwelling is energy inefficient and the tenant couldn’t meet the energy bills, the tenant (not the landlord) suffers the consequences.
Incidentally …
Fuel/energy poverty definitions focus on heating – the need to raise the indoor temperature during the cold(er) periods of the year – there is no mention of avoiding indoor overheating and the associated threats to health. It is predicted that there will be an increase in the frequency, intensity and length of heatwaves, but UK dwellings have not been (and are not being) designed to avoid overheating. While new dwellings could be designed to minimise the threat of overheating, it is more difficult to deal with older dwellings. While thermal insulation provides some protection, it is likely that air conditioning will soon be seen as necessary – and this means energy will be needed for cooling. The current fuel poverty definitions fail to acknowledge this.
Although this article has concentrated on energy use in the dwelling, in reality, energy injustice (and even fuel/energy poverty) should include the cost of travel – being able to afford or access means of transport to meet essential needs such as food supplies, employment, education and healthcare. This additional energy-related cost is particularly relevant for those on low incomes outside urban areas.
Acknowledgements: Penny Wiles for comments and proofreading, and Véronique Ezratty MD for advice on health and ideas about ‘travel-energy costs’.